Evidence 1. Inclusive Cities

Division of two realities by a street(Core Econ, n.d.)

Education in nature(Welander, 2021)

Inclusive cities

Water where it is supposed not to be(Franco, n.d.)

La Condesa speaks English(Aréchiga, 2022)

Sara Sánchez Vargas A01655822

Health for migrants(INM, 2023)

Struggles in my way (IFES, 2023)

Social inclusion and diversity

United Nations takes social inclusion as the process in which efforts are made to ensure equal opportunities despite peoples background, so that they can achieve their full integral potential. This goal also implies policies to look for equal access to public services and make it suitable for every citizen to participate in the decision-making process which will affect their lives. Social inclusion would benefit economic development, reduce health cost and reduce poverty statistics in countries that commit to take social inclusion and diversity as the process and goal to achieve inclusive cities (Social Inclusion | Division for Inclusive Social Development (DISD), s. f.).

Gentrification and Displacement

The Urban Displacement Project defines gentrification as the process referred to neighborhood displacement for new higher-income residents moving in. This does not only affect in economic terms, but also in demographic aspects such as education levels or racial fluctuations (What Are Gentrification and Displacement – Urban Displacement, s. f.). Gentrification compels to native neighbors to move into poorer-neighborhoods because of the rise of prices where they originally lived. The caused impact goes beyond the economy, the implemented policies to improve the zone life quality no longer work to the new inhabitants and the displacement of these people just make greater poverty issues.

Economic inequality

ONU states that over two thirds of the global population lives in countries where the inequality has presented an important growth. Latin America has the greatest levels of inequality since the 90’s. In terms of facts, just 1% of the global population gets the most money while 40% gets less than 25% of the total incomes, which magnifies inequality levels. Marta Roing assures that the major cause of inequality are the governments’ policies. If this problem is not urgently assisted, this will inevitably end into greater migration phenomena, greater poverty levels, social and economic differences (La desigualdad impide el avance social y exacerba las divisiones sociales, pero no es inevitable | Noticias ONU, 2020).

Environmental sustainability

Microsoft defines environmental sustainability as “the ability to maintain an ecological balance in our planet’s natural environment … to support the wellbeing of current and future generations” (What Is Environmental Sustainability?, s. f.). As a result of the current global lifestyle, climate change has an impact on societies leading to economic and environmental repercussions. The climate consequences go from rising global temperatures, extreme droughts, devastating tropical storms, more frequent wildfires and floods. This problem has taken more importance because it represents a new challenge to cities in order to assure a secure place to its inhabitants as well as health, economic and social necessities that natural catastrophes cause.

Inclusive Streets

The World Economic Forum states that in order to reach inclusive cities, it is necessary to use technology and other modern tools to promote safer urban areas. Also, inclusive mobility would help older people and around 15% of the population who live with any kind of physical or cognitive disabilities. Projects such as Accessible Olli which is an autonomous shuttle capable of processing sign language lets people with hearing impairments to be independent. Or implementations such as in Mexico City where there are speakers and sidewalk patterns to guide people with visual impairments (Here’s How We Can Design Inclusive Cities, 2019).

Education

UNESCO reports that 20% of the youths are daily excluded from education because of factors such as gender, ethnic origin, language, religion, nationality, economic situation or because of disability. On the other hand, 40% of the global population has no access to education in a language that they can speak or at least understand, as well as, between 93 to 150 million kids in the world present some kind of disability (La inclusión en la educación | Articles, s. f.). Poor education will segregate an important sector of inhabitants and will end up in feeding back the poverty cycle and inequality of personal and economic growth.